Because I'm white.  I'm a white, highly educated (over educated?) gay man and any discussion of race raises my pulse, causes me to feel flush and hot, and makes me completely uncomfortable.  I'm also the Director of a Summer Institute that is focusing on issues regarding Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the United States this summer, so you can imagine that I've been thinking and talking about race quite a bit these days.  When I talk to other white folks about race, I feel frustrated.  When I talk to folks of color about race, I feel nervous. I've spent some time reflecting on why this might be and am starting to understand a little about myself.

I'm learning that I'm afraid to talk about race because I fear that I will be called a racist. I think that white people, particularly liberal white people, particularly liberal white people who believe they are fighting for social justice and civil rights, are scared to death of being called a racist. We live in SAN FRANCISCO! How can we be racist?  We're the good ones not those horrible red-kneck, Neo-Nazis. We're on your side! (stealing from Sarah Silverman, "We love ethnics!") At the same time, I know that not only am I racist but I am part of a larger systemic and institutional problem that promotes and enforces racism. I also know that no matter how much legislation is passed or...

Only a few days after the Iowan state supreme court found legal limits on marriage to heterosexual couples unconstitutional, the Vermont state congress overrode the state's governor, Jim Douglas, to legalize same-sex marriage.  See the full story here: http://www.365gay.com/news/gay-marriage-legal-in-vermont/

This now brings the total count to Vermont, Iowa, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.  Of course, bills are being considered elsewhere, including New Hampshire and Maine, and the constitutionality of Prop 8 is being challenged in courts currently in California.  We're beginning to see progress for the "Six by Twelve" campaign for marriage equality in the New England region (a goal set for 2012).  Woo hoo!

Update (1:15pm EST): As of today, Washington, DC recognizes same-gender marriages from other states.  See here for the full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/07/AR2009040702200.html?hpid=topnews

The Iowa Supreme Court became the fourth state supreme court in the United States to overturn laws against same-sex marriages. The decision, which passed unanimously, means that gay couples in Iowa will be able to marry in 21 days.

The justices said in their decision, “We have a constitutional duty to ensure equal protection of the law...If gay and lesbian people must submit to different treatment without an exceedingly persuasive justification, they are deprived of the benefits of the principle of equal protection upon which the rule of law is founded.”

The justices acknowledge a possible backlash by marriage equality opponents based on their religious beliefs, and the justices included language addressing those concerns. They maintained that marriage is a civil contract and should not affect religious freedom of Iowans that object to marriage equality based on religious beliefs.

Marriage equality opponents will likely try to overturn the decision in the legislature and by popular vote. But according to The New York Times the attempt will take at least two years. Iowa's laws requires the state legislature to vote to reinstate the ban in two consecutive sessions before it can go to popular vote.

Be on the look out for a special season of June...

In Judaism, there is a tenant called ‘”Tikkun Olam”, which translated from Hebrew means “repair the world”.

Last Thursday, eighty high school sophomore students from Emery/Weiner, a Jewish Community School in Houston, Texas descended upon the San Francisco LGBT Community Center to hear a panel of local community activists talk about social and health issues impacting LGBT people. The goal of the panel was for students to learn about issues facing LGBT people as well as to begin to develop tools they could use to promote greater equality for LGBT people back home.

When the Youth Program of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center called me to see if I would be interested in representing NSRC on the panel, I was thrilled (and a bit surprised too) to hear that an event like this was even...

The 21st National Conference on LGBT Equality—Creating Change—convenes next week in Denver, Colorado (January 28-February 1) and NSRC once again plans to be there in support of placing sexual literacy at the very heart of the movement where it has been conspicuously downplayed or disappeared altogether in recent years.

So what does sexuality literacy have to do with achieving LGBT equality?

Everything. And the grassroots LGBT movement is now beginning to recognize and act on it.

This year, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s commitment to...